asciilifeform: a 'modernized' version of above could have candidates grasp a live wire for a second.
asciilifeform: or the variant where they lick red-hot iron.
asciilifeform favours the return of hot coals - cheaper, more effective, more picturesque.
asciilifeform: i'd imagine modern ru has adopted the ritual. just the same as 'everything western' was lifted, for good or ill, in the '90s.
asciilifeform: afaik most of the use was in order to familiarize men with a torment the enemy was fond of using.
asciilifeform: decimation: much of the effect can be accomplished through lower-tech 'human' methods instead.
asciilifeform: and to the degree that there is a function, it is to select for 'cold psychopath' (or whatever the fashionable term for the beast is.)
asciilifeform: incidentally, 'trial by ordeal' - in particular, methods which involve functions of the parasympathetic nervous system, e.g., hot coals or modern 'lie detector' - are ancient.
asciilifeform: bounce: it is not really necessary to believe in anything to 'climb up.' in fact, it would seriously get in the way.
asciilifeform: the 'method' idea is possibly lifted from the jewish tradition (where you are not, in fact, asked to believe in god, but to simply carry out the program, as i understand.)
asciilifeform: not necessarily, just willing to undergo the sacrament.
asciilifeform: and not simply a device for fooling jury (not all jurisdictions have jury trials) but for eliciting confession through intimidation (as 'lie detector' was once used for)
asciilifeform: and actual trials where this fact was brought in - and always the crown's side would proclaim - 'this is not a fact because simply inconceivable, law and order would collapse.'
asciilifeform: there were studies which appear to show that fingeprints are not, in fact, as unique as popularly believed
asciilifeform: here's a little mindfuck, for those still awake:
asciilifeform: 'unprincipled exceptions' (no you don't get to cross the street if the Fuhrer is within 1km) only go so far.
asciilifeform: thing is, modern 'rights states' (see some of mircea_popescu's pieces) create a problem - various 'rights' are Officially proclaimed, that, were they actually exercised en masse, would make the entire scamatron collapse overnight.
asciilifeform: in as far as the crown goes, 'actual truth' is a matter between you and your gods
asciilifeform: this is why you see fp readers at usg facilities, in consumer finance, iPnohes, etc.
asciilifeform: they do not care if they actually, in physical reality, work. only that the results are considered prima facie evidence that whatever Officially happened - happened.
asciilifeform: my hypothesis re: biometrics is, imho, the only one proposed so far that has explanatory power for the fact that idiotically lame, e.g., fingerprint readers, nevertheless are happily deployed en masse by usg☟︎☟︎
asciilifeform: the purpose of biometrics is to protect the system against -you-, rather than you against sc4mz0rz.
asciilifeform: engineers, who (as shown by the 'monolith' gedankenexperiment, search logs) often do not really apprehend how lizard-reich and its subordinate bureaucracies really think.☟︎
asciilifeform: 'it was your print, therefore it was you, now shuddup'
asciilifeform: chetty: the whole purpose of 'biometric' crap is to administratively fix the designated chump as the permanently-designated chump.☟︎☟︎
asciilifeform: think of it this way, if fingerprint is your password, you're leaving a 'stickynote' with your password on nearly everything you touch.
asciilifeform: as it stays open - someone is paying.
asciilifeform: only because no one yet has the audacity to list usg payola as 'profit'
asciilifeform: coinbase << the folks who delay transactions to help you get shafted optimally?
asciilifeform is reminded of a recent trip to a hardware store, where he saw an entire rack of different kinds of 'duct tape', of nominally greater and greater strengths.
asciilifeform: at any rate, the anglos did what they do best, and now there's a kind of stuffed animal with 'germany' sticker we have now instead to enjoy.
